African Summer: The Story of a Fish Out of Water

Stuck like a tongue in the mouth of Senegal, the tiny country of the Gambia is one of those places the world forgets until the president puts down a coup - but as Andrew Gilman discovered one hot summer, even the craziest dictator can be nice at his own birthday party. Anything's possible in a land where you can search for dragons by day and sip tea with silversmiths by night, or meet a blacksmith who moonlights as a sorcerer. Signing up for a seven-week trip, Andrew never thought Gambian life might mean knife-wielding maniacs and hungry crocodiles, swimming in hippo-infested waters or barely escaping riptides. But he packed enough for a small safari, just in case. Between magic and the local moonshine Andrew managed to make it out alive - and with self-deprecating humor tells the story of a country called "the Smiling Coast," and a travel novice forgetting to look before he leaps headlong into the heart of Africa.

Andrew Gilman is a traveler and sometimes writer who would like nothing more than to see the world and tell a story about it. He hasn't decided where to live yet, and at this rate probably never will, but while in the States he splits his time between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Sometimes he remembers to update his blog at andrewgilman.net. African Summer is his first book.